Stephen Kruiser

Stephen Kruiser is a professional comedian and writer who has also been a conservative political activist for over two decades. A co-founder of the first Los Angeles Tea Party, Kruiser often speaks to grassroots groups around America and has had the great honor of traveling around the world entertaining U.S. troops.

“The truth is it’s Canadian oil that’s then going to go to the world market. It will probably create about a couple thousand construction jobs for a year or two, but only create about 300 permanent jobs,” Obama said at a town hall in South Carolina when asked by an attendee about his decision.

“The reason that a lot of environmentalists are concerned about it is the way that you get the oil out in Canada is an extraordinarily dirty way of extracting oil. And, obviously, there are always risks in piping a lot of oil through Nebraska farmland and other parts of the country,” Obama added.

It is worth noting that a responsible, adult president of the United States wouldn’t be dismissive of 300 Americans getting permanent jobs, especially in this economy. That this is coming from a man who reflexively belches the word “infrastructure” as a way to temporarily employ people is doubly ridiculous. By the way, Mr. President: all construction jobs are, by nature, temporary.

Should anyone you encounter question the contention that the current Leader of the Free World is a paste-eating moron based on his Keystone comments alone, you can point out that during the same speech he said that it’s easier to buy a gun than a book or a fresh vegetable in some places.

Since the news of Hillary Clinton’s latest episode of blatant disregard surfaced, many of the usual suspects in the media have been rallying behind her. They blame Republicans for always trying to say something bad about the Good Ship Inevitable, even if it was the New York Times that broke the story. They went looking for dirt on Scott Walker right away.

This is understandable, the Clintons have always had a stranglehold on the media, so much so that Team Hillary has even been able to direct them to continually write stories about how awful the media is to her, despite no real world evidence of that.

The one notable faction of the Democratic Party that hasn’t been breaking a sweat to defend Her Madameship is the one currently in charge.

Human trafficking—and sex trafficking in particular—has become something of a Christian cause célèbre. There are prayer weekends, movies, magazine covers, Sunday school curricula, and countless church-based ministries. More unusual efforts include lipstick sold to help “kiss slavery goodbye” and tattoo alteration services for victims who say they have been “branded” by their captors. An extraordinarily complex global issue has somehow become one of the most energetic Christian missions of the 21st century.

I think we can all agree that human trafficking is horrible and fighting it is rather noble, right? We should all be able to come together to battle some of the world’s most heinous ills and get along for awhile.

Not so much for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits.

When evangelicals picked up the issue of trafficking around the turn of the millennium, they drastically expanded the existing movement’s influence and reach. By now it has spawned major institutional efforts by nonprofits like World Relief, not to mention both state and federal legislation. According to some critics, however, Christians also changed the movement’s character. “It wasn’t until this evangelical coalition emerged that sex trafficking became this huge everyday issue,” said Soderlund. “Once the evangelicals got on board, it became a much more mainstream issue, and less feminist. You had innocent victims, and you had evildoers, and it wasn’t as much about patriarchy.”

If you’re still trying to figure out why bringing greater awareness to a global travesty merits criticism, I’ve started a club. Awareness itself seems to be a pervasive 21st century goal. The NFL spends a month every season dressing football players in pink to “raise awareness” for a disease that roughly 99% of the adult population knows about.

The desperate search for negatives in this article would be humorous if the subject matter weren’t so serious. The biggest complaint here seems to be, “Dammit, it was our issue and you’re muddying the narrative with all your kind assistance!” You can almost feel the tortured flailing as the author tries to see the bad side.

What the article is really about is the fact that leftists don’t feel alive unless they’re absolutely miserable. They want the world to perpetually be in need of saving, but only as long as it’s their brand of saving that is being done. Crazy Jesus people need not help, even if they’re a great help.

Much ado is being made about this by more mainstream outlets than the Kos Commie Show. The GOP is being portrayed as “still” (per the Dem narrative, certainly not reality) being insensitive. Just how insensitive? So much so that they sent an African-American United States Senator from the South to represent them.

Rest assured that this was always a no-win situation for the Republicans as far as the media goes. Had McConnell and/or Boehner headed the delegation, we’d be hearing about how lily white GOP leadership is. That they’re spinning this as yet another racist Republican tale when Sen. Scott is co-leading a delegation with Sen. Sherrod Brown just shows how committed they are to ignoring reality.

In an interview the HBO series “Vice” released Friday in advance of the premiere of its third season, Biden said it’s increasingly difficult for climate skeptics to intelligently argue their case.

“I think it’s close to mindless. I think it’s like, you know, almost like denying gravity now,” Biden told host Shane Smith when he asked about Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a high-profile skeptic who called climate change “the greatest hoax” perpetrated on mankind.

“The willing suspension of disbelief can only be sustained so long,” he continued. “The expression my dad used to always use is ‘reality has a way of intruding.’”

Being called “mindless” by a noted intellectual like Biden has a certain amusing charm to it. It’s like a fat guy telling you to lose weight. You want to be offended, then you realize just how sad the other person is.

This does illustrate how the Dems keep these fairy tales of theirs afloat, though. They go do these appearances that seem to be frivolous but definitely serve a purpose. Biden isn’t going to be challenged on anything he says in that setting, and young people are going to watch it. The indoctrination machine is running at full capacity at that point. There will be no discussions on the difference between anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic climate change or the fact that the goal posts for the parameters of this “science” have been moved so much the field is now about a thousand miles long. These forums provide nothing but safe zones for good, old-fashioned liberal demagoguery.

Sadly, it’s effective even when the village idiot is sent to represent the cause.

Three days into the rolling controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email address as Secretary of State, Democrats are showing signs of stress.

In interviews with more than three dozen Democratic activists, donors, and officials from across the country — including many in the influential presidential nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina — some were scathing in their criticism over the revelations, while others admitted to being unnerved.

Predictably, those who automatically defend Hillary act as if trouble like this is conjured up out of nothing by detractors, which always makes me wonder if we’re talking about the same woman. Even the most partisan Democrat should be able to admit that the Clintons are in the habit of inviting controversy after it was proven lo those many years ago that Monica Lewinsky wasn’t an RNC plant. Bless their hearts though, they stick to the conspiracy stuff, just as Madame instructed.

The real problem, as this post points out, is that the Democrats are just now realizing that all of their eggs are in one basket and there isn’t much of a contingency plan when the whole thing goes rotten at once. Politicofirst explored this yesterday, which probably kept the poor dears up all night.

The fact that they’re bringing it up again today might mean that the lapdogs know more than the general public at the moment.

If you’re looking for a way to introduce more women to the concept of shooting a firearm and carrying concealed, you might consider hosting a holster fashion show, which, as we found last weekend at the Firearm and Fashion Expo in Branson, Mo., appeared to be a great way to educate and entertain. The weekend’s events felt the brunt of yet another winter snow and ice storm that swiftly moved into the southwestern portion of the Ozarks on Friday afternoon and basically shut down travel.

For the few souls left at the Expo (including Yours Truly), the show must and did go on. Our models appeared and we worked with a small, although enthusiastic, crowd who came out to support this fund-raising effort for the Southwest Missouri Chapter of The Well Armed Woman (TWAW). Pictured below are a few of the holsters we showed onstage, and yes, that’s our Marti Davis in the mix. After the show, the audience could ask questions and examine the holsters that had been brought out from behind stage. We even auctioned a few of them off to raise money for TWAW’s non-profit status fund.

I’d have walked through the snow to see this. Uphill. Both ways.

Honestly, the mere mention of models and firearms compelled me to post this. Second Amendment women deserve a little something extra, they put in a lot of range hours and are more fun to be around. As is often pointed out, leaving something up to the imagination, like the caliber of a concealed weapon, heightens the experience.

Again, purely in the interests of expanding my blogging horizons and reaching out to female readers, I’ll leave you with another item from the fashion show.

Enjoy.

Update: Photo via Femme Fatale Holsters, which donated items to the Branson Firearm and Fashion Expo, and promises “Elegant Concealed Carry Holsters for Women, Created by a Woman.”

A train carrying crude oil derailed Thursday in Illinois, and smoke from the burning crude could be seen for miles.

A BNSF Railway train carrying 103 cars of crude oil and 2 “buffer cars” loaded with sand derailed at 1:20 p.m. Thursday just south of Galena, Illinois, according to a statement from BNSF.

No injuries were reported, according to BNSF.

Firefighters on scene reported crude oil burning at the site, according to TH Media. Grant County, Wisconsin, hazardous materials responders were at the scene, as were fire departments from Galena, East Dubuque and Menominee-Dunleith, Illinois, according to the TH.

In a world where non-PC utterances are cause for ruining careers, the notoriously unhinged Dan Savage is given the opportunity to be the executive producer of a network comedy based on his life.

Savage gets a pass on his lunacy, however, because he’s in an Approved Victim Group (AVG) and fought against bullying.

For quick reference, here are a few examples that should be fun to play a game of “What if a conservative had said this?” with.

Real mainstream America stuff there, ABC.

This is why conservatives need to continue to fight in Hollywood, and trust me, the fight is happening. America doesn’t need a conservative alternative, it needs us to battle to shred the entertainment industry status quo, which not only overlooks, but rewards, all things leftist.

Uphill battle, you say? Most goals worth achieving are.

Before any agenda-driven lefties try to say (and they will) that my beef is with Savage being gay and getting a network show, let me be clear: it’s only because he’s a jag-off.

“Instead of thinking about controlling a joystick, which is what our ace pilots do when they’re driving this thing, Jan’s thinking about controlling the airplane directly,” Prabhakar said. “For someone who’s never flown — she’s not a pilot in real life — she’s flying that simulator directly from her neural signaling.”

Every hint of a major technological advance brings a host of questions and nightmare scenarios along with it, but the initial sense of wonder should be savored before worrying about what could go wrong.

Like the old joke about a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, it’s a good start.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s $38 billion budget plan would slash the budget-busting Medicaid program and cut spending throughout state government, setting up months of wrangling with Democratic lawmakers over who will feel the most pain — and who won’t.

“This is the first chess move with the Legislature,” said Josh Archambault of the Pioneer Institute, who has studied the growing impact of MassHealth spending on state coffers. “We’re going to be talking about this for at least the next two years. Given how MassHealth has been eating up education or cops or transportation spending, there needs to be discussion to get this program on a sustainable path.”

Thus far, Charlie Baker has been that rarest of all politicians in the 21st Century: a Republican who goes on offense rather than defense after winning an election (contrast that with the Boehner/McConnell Capitulation Clown show from the last couple of weeks). This may seem surprising at first, given that he is a northeastern Republican and we don’t always expect the most out of them. However, my theory is that they go in not planning on getting a second term and figure, “Why not?”

See? Everything is on the up and up. Hillary is going to have the State Department release emails from her private server. No word on how many people she has chained in a basement and scrubbing those emails first, all the while screaming, “Remember what happened to Vince Foster!” to make them work faster.

Meanwhile, the press was quick to pretend this nothingburger tweet was a thing.

Second Amendment supporters in Congress are rallying against a controversial ammunition ban from the Obama administration.

Hundreds of lawmakers wrote to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) Wednesday, urging it to “abandon” a proposed ban on a popular armor-piercing bullet commonly used in AR-15 rifles.

The ATF’s proposed ban is intended to protect law enforcement officers from armor-piercing bullets and keep them out of harms way, but Republicans say the prohibition unfairly targets hunters, who sometimes use these guns.
“Under no circumstances should ATF adopt a standard that will ban ammunition that is overwhelmingly used by law-abiding Americans for legitimate purposes,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to ATF Director B. Todd Jones.

The letter was signed by 239 House lawmakers, including Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and seven Democrats.

This follows the introduction last week of the Protecting Second Amendment Rights Act from Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) that would roll back the ATF’s power to regulate ammunition.

If he can’t do it through Executive overreach, President Obama is more than happy to let federal regulations run amok and choke the freedom out of America. He made gun control a focal point of his second inauguration speech and has spectacularly failed at getting anything done about it. Never mind the fact that the failures have come because the American people don’t support his fringe-left position on guns, this president does not like to be told “no”. The new Boehner/McConnell Republican majority just rolled over for the funding of the Obama’s amnesty plans, which makes one question whether he’s in for more than a strongly-worded letter on this issue.

Jimmy Kimmel has an 8-month-old daughter, and he is sick and tired of all this anti-vaccination chatter lately, so he decided to do something about it.

The TV host made a PSA last week about why parents should be vaccinating their children. He preceded the video with a long speech about his pro-vaccine stance, and slammed celebs like Jenny McCarthy for speaking out against the practice.

Kimmel then played a PSA he shot that featured frustrated doctors blasting parents who don’t vaccinate.

And after the PSA aired, the Twitterverse erupted in angry messages directed at Kimmel, he revealed this week on his show.

Kimmel tackled the issue once again on Monday night, saying despite the scores of angry messages calling for him to apologize, he had no intention of saying sorry.

There are far too many cries for public apologies lately. Face it, the country has gone weak. Whether I agree with the celebrity or not on a given issue (and I do agree on this one), I am always happy to see one who won’t yield to reflexive outrage. Sometimes, you just have to be dismissive. Kimmel states perfectly why he is in this case:

“A lot of these groups are insisting I present both sides of the argument, and I am not going to do that either for the same reason I wouldn’t present both sides if a group of people decided that pancakes make you gay. They don’t, and there is no point in discussing it.”

New York City public schools will now observe two Muslim holidays, officials announced Wednesday, making the district — the nation’s biggest — one of the few to put Islamic holy days on its calendar.

Under the change announced by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and city Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina, there will be no class for Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, starting next September 24. Another Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr — a festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan — will become a holiday for those in summer school starting in 2016.

“This is a common-sense change,” de Blasio said Wednesday, “and one that recognizes our growing Muslim community and honors its contributions to our city.”

The decision affects some 1 million students in New York City. While it’s not known exactly how many of them are Muslim, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said that almost 1 million of the more than 8 million people in the city’s five boroughs practice Islam.

The move isn’t a surprise, given de Blasio’s campaign pledge to alter the school calendar with Muslim families in mind.

Leftists’ priorities would be pathetically amusing if they weren’t almost always ultimately destructive. Public schools aren’t supposed to be in the business of catering to a religious population anymore, remember? If a Christmas tree so much as passes within 500 feet of public property, radical atheists appear out of the ether with pitchforks in hand.

What is awful about the timing for this is that it plays into the false narrative that we need to be more sensitive to a religion that may or may not be telling its adherents to kill us because we really are the problem. Yes, there are a handful of moderate Islamist voices who claim that the violence isn’t an inherent part of the religion.

Until now, Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency has been viewed as pretty much a sure thing. But lately the road to near-certain nomination has taken a couple of rough turns, especially with the revelation that Clinton may have broken federal rules as secretary of state by communicating only on her private email account. Which makes us wonder: What if The Unthinkable did happen and she actually dropped out? What would be the Democrats’ response?

“Panic,” says Democratic consultant Chris Lapetina. Indeed, the biggest problem is that the Democratic establishment is apparently so terrified of the idea of a Hillary-less race—and the vicious primary that might result—it’s not even considering contingency plans. Political professionals, like military generals and crisis management experts, know that the way to avoid being blindsided is to prepare for every scenario. But while the Democratic National Committee has to officially remain neutral, much of the extraparty infrastructure has been moving ahead on the presumption of a Hillary campaign.

The Democrats are afraid of the no-Hillary option because their bench is thinner than Joe Biden’s hair before he got the plugs. All eyes would turn towards Elizabeth Warren at first, prompting an “elderly white woman for elderly white woman” straight-up swap for the party of youth and diversity. If the Hillary money went her way, the problem is solved. Warren, however, is a favorite of the Obama crowd, which isn’t always in sync with the Hillary crowd, so there is no guarantee that would happen.

The only reason to believe that the email problem will have a negative impact on Hillary is the fact that it was the New York Times that made it well known. Her Madameship’s minions can’t scurry about screaming about right-wing conspiracies on this one. Sadly, the Clintons are practiced lawbreakers and have never had any of their countless infractions stick.

My personal conspiracy theory here (pure speculation) is that the email scandal will only gain traction if power players inside the Democratic Party decide that Mrs. Bill needs to be nudged out in favor of Fauxcahontas.

The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize has demoted its chairman for the first time in the 114-year history of the award, after years of pressure from Beijing for his removal….

Mr Jagland also oversaw the controversial award handed to newly elected US President Barack Obama in 2009, shortly after becoming chairman that same year.

The move stunned the world and the recipient alike, as Mr Obama had been in office for fewer than nine months and the United States was still waging simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr Jagland said at the time that the organisation wanted to praise the US leader’s early vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and capture “the spirit of the times, the needs of the era”.

The article tries to blame it on politics but this is the first time in the award’s 114 year history that a chairman has been demoted. There certainly have been political shifts in Norway and on the committee in 144 years and no one else got canned. Maybe the Nobel laureate who had a vision of a world free of nuclear weapons can explain why he is so intent on making sure Iran gets some.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner cleared the way for a vote as soon as Tuesday on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year, dealing a blow to conservative Republicans who wanted to include language blocking President Barack Obama’s immigration actions.

If successful, the vote would end a legislative standoff that began late last year over security funding and Obama’s immigration actions, which have been put on hold by the courts.

Spending authority for the department that spearheads domestic counter terrorism operations ends at midnight on Friday.

Boehner was left with few if any viable procedural options to continue the fight over Obama’s executive actions that last year bypassed Congress to lift the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented residents.

Obama and Democrats have backed a so-called clean funding bill passed by the Senate, and Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked a House-passed bill that includes the immigration provisions.

I’m sure that we were all imagining last November that the incoming Republican majority would do all it could to encourage Executive overreach by President Obama, right?

The Republicans are drawing lines in the sand that are immediately blown away by hot air from the MSM. This new majority is so afraid to be portrayed badly by the press they’re legislating like scared children who experience perpetual angst about disappointing mommy and daddy.

Barely two months in, and Obama has already seen that the GOP can’t mount any real opposition to his most outlandish attempts at fundamental transformation.

Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says he can’t think of a good reason why Hillary Clinton would have used a personal email address for all correspondence when she was secretary of state.

“I think it is, obviously, highly unusual,” he said on NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday morning, following a report by The New York Times that Clinton used a non-government email to conduct official business, possibly in violation of federal record requirements. The State Department acknowledged to POLITICO on Monday that thousands of her emails were not preserved as a result.

Clinton and her people need to explain the situation in detail, Gibbs said.

Her Madameship’s explanation will probably be what it usually is: “Why are you picking on me?” This is the weakest, whiniest “strong” feminist icon you’ll ever encounter. More than likely, some staffer will be blamed for not properly informing the Smartest Woman In The World about the rules.

The U.S. Air Force has a quarter of the number of fighter squadrons it did 25 years ago and two-thirds of the active duty airmen, a drop that threatens U.S. air superiority, defense officials told lawmakers on Friday.

“Enough is enough,” Air Force Secretary Deborah James told lawmakers in the House of Representatives as she defended a Pentagon budget request that exceeds federal spending caps. “Given the state of the world … the number one thing we have to stop is this downsizing.”

But members of the defense appropriations subcommittee said President Barack Obama’s 2016 Pentagon base budget of $534 billion exceeded spending caps by nearly $35 billion and would have to be cut. Some $10 billion of that would have to come from the Air Force request, they said.

“The budget he (Obama) submitted … frankly is politically … a fantasy,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma. “It’s not going to pass, and he knows that.”

Cole said he hoped lawmakers ultimately would be able to reach a bipartisan deal to provide some relief from the spending limits.

The problem is that the Pentagon budget is treated as an equal to the other departments that are federally funded and it probably shouldn’t be. We’re not sending park rangers from Interior over to bomb ISIS, after all. Under the current plan that involves escalating air raids, the Air Force should be an obvious recipient of a budgetary bump and not be fighting to avoid cuts.

It might also help if the alleged adults in charge would admit to the protracted nature of this battle and stop acting as if it is a controlled skirmish that will be wrapped up on a predetermined date.

Reid’s uncompromising posture during the flap over homeland security funding and his emerging plans for an upcoming fight over immigration make clear he’s doing little to change the hardball style that defined his tenure as majority leader. This despite losing control of the chamber after last fall’s Democratic debacle and tamping down a coup among centrists seeking his ouster.

The 75-year-old Reid, who may seek reelection next year and is in his second stint as minority leader, is betting that Republicans are so nervous about being blamed for a crisis in Washington — as they have been repeatedly before — that they will capitulate again.

Naturally, his unyielding stance has maddened Republicans.

The new Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, wanted to initiate a lengthy floor debate on a House-passed Department of Homeland Security funding bill. But Reid surprised Republicans by rallying his caucus on four separate occasions to block the measure from even coming forward — demanding McConnell drop contentious immigration provisions. After a month of inaction in the Senate and up against Friday’s funding deadline, McConnell ultimately bent to Reid’s demands.

As Ace of Spades HQ put it yesterday, McConnell is only Majority Leader “when Reid let’s him play the part”.

This is the problem with the “Ted Cruz is a hothead” crowd, which is led by McConnell: they worry more about how things will play out in the media than doing what is actually right for the American people. That is precisely why McConnell’s victory speech after November’s election immediately took a dig at Cruz and not the Democrats.

My PJTV colleague Scott Ott stated it brilliantly earlier this week: Republicans love to play defense even when they are on offense.

The GOP gets savaged in the press not just because the MSM is biased, but also because it is so awful at getting out in front of something or counter-punching. The messaging is forever muddled or nonexistent, and letting Admiral Ackbar’s mushmouthed cousin McConnell drone his way through an explanation that’s really designed to curry favor with the New York Times is never anything short of disastrous.

Freeze this moment in your minds for the next time conservatives mount a primary challenge to an entrenched candidate and the establishment starts babbling about “experience” or “knowing how to get things done”.

Mark Salter, who was a top adviser on the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R), is not a fan of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

On Thursday, Salter went on Facebook and posted an article criticizing a comment Walker made about the Islamic State jihadist group (also known as ISIS or ISIL) at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Salter added a colorful comment.

“I want to like him but Scott Walker is kind of a dumb ass,” Salter wrote.

I was asked during a radio interview this morning how long it would be before more mainstream, establishment Republicans started going after Walker now that he’s in “locomotive at full steam” mode. I replied that they’re probably already sending opposition research to the New York Times.

When the various players in the McCain ’08 unmitigated disaster (their fault, not Sarah Palin’s, by the way) weigh in on Republican matters these days, it is stunning that they aren’t laughed out of the country. It’s also the reason that the GOP has such a hard time seizing momentum.

In the coming months pay attention to how eerily in sync the MSM and establishment GOP complaints about Walker are and you will understand why the Republican Party may very well find a way to lose to a grandmother who almost no one genuinely likes.

Shopping mall operators need to increase security through more staff, cameras and other techniques in light of threats made against the Mall of America in Minnesota and other shopping centers by Somali-based Islamist militants this week, outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.

“I certainly think we have to step up our sensitivities to what goes on in these commercial enterprises,” Holder said in an interview with CNN that aired on Friday. “It would be the responsible thing for operators of these malls to increase their capabilities when it comes to keeping people safe who are just going about their everyday lives.”

In a separate interview with Politico, also published on Friday, Holder said he would push in his final weeks in office to lower the standard of proof for civil-rights offenses that would make it easier for the federal government to bring charges in future cases.

The Justice Department recently closed its investigation into the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, without filing charges against gunman George Zimmerman because of “insufficient evidence.”

With almost no due respect, Mr. Attorney General, I think stepping up our “sensitivities” is what got us to this place. The benign, academic way Holder and The Idiot King talk about terrorist threats is almost as chilling as the threats themselves. It’s like a thought experiment that they have been given in a freshman International Politics class. We’re dealing with people obsessed with killing anyone who disagrees with them and this administration is talking security cameras and mall cops.

Contrast that with the laser-like focus on George Zimmerman, who may be a minor train wreck of a human being but was exonerated in court and, as of today, hasn’t threaten to blow up any malls.

Perhaps a little more focus on ISIS, and a lot less on stories that MSNBC finds important.

He’s rocketing to the top-tier of potential 2016 GOP contenders following a strong appearance in Iowa last month and surging to the front of the pack in a handful of polls.

But coming off a 2012 cycle that saw Republican candidates rise and fall with the regularity of a finely-made Swiss watch, Walker’s challenge now is figuring out a way to sustain the momentum.

The writer is being coy here: Walker isn’t just the fastest rising star, he has become the 800 lb. gorilla of the GOP almost overnight. CNN’s sudden concern about his ability to sustain momentum is basically its way of saying that Walker hasn’t really made any missteps yet, even though the more unhinged among the MSM have just spent a week trying unsuccessfully to prove otherwise.

The article’s allusion to the 2012 elections ignores the fact that Walker has won three elections in four years. He’s campaign-ready and unlikely to provide the left with the Todd Akin moment it is so desperately hoping for at this time. The way he handled the manufactured drama over his refusal to play “Gotcha!” with the press about President Obama proves that.

Let’s play another round of “What if a Republican had done this?” Imagine a GOP governor using Koch brothers money in a corruption scandal. Rachel Maddow might pass out on air and HuffPo would cease writing about anything else for days.

The mere mention of the Koch brothers by any member of the media should be met with repeated mentions of Steyer, who spends far more to influence elections than the left’s favorite bogeymen.

A majority of New Jersey registered voters view Governor Chris Christie unfavorably, a poll showed on Friday, underscoring the headwinds the outspoken Republican could face in securing his party’s nomination for the 2016 presidential election.

The poll by Rutgers-Eagleton noted that “for the first time” a majority, 53 percent, were unfavorably inclined toward the governor, according to a statement.

It said 37 percent of registered voters in the state felt favorably toward the governor, down 7 percentage points in two months.

After Mitt’s exit, most of the catheterized octogenarian Republican establishment money was already probably starting to move Jebber’s way and this will certainly help. Christie is burdened by having to fight on two fronts. He wants to be the establishment’s guy but he also has to run on his governor’s résumé, which opens him up for head-to-head comparisons with Scott Walker. Both appear to be increasingly uphill battles and Christie could very well end up with Lindsey Graham levels of support for a presidential run.

Jill Stanek from Life News highlights some points from a Houston Chronicle article on the subject. What is sickening is that there is probably a market for a woman whose only claim to fame is being a champion for extremely late term abortions and that she is obviously thrilled with making that her legacy. Here’s the YouTube vid from her new speakers bureau:

Islamic State insurgents took control on Thursday of large parts of the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, threatening an air base where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops, officials said.

Al-Baghdadi, about 85 km (50 miles) northwest of Ramadi in Anbar province, has been besieged for months by the radical Sunni Islamist militants who captured vast swathes of northern and western Iraq last year.

Militants attacked al-Baghdadi from two directions earlier in the day and then advanced on the town, intelligence sources and officials in the Jazeera and Badiya operations commands said.

The officials said another group of insurgents then attacked the heavily-guarded Ain al-Asad air base five km southwest of the town, but were unable to break into it.

About 320 U.S. Marines are training members of the Iraqi 7th Division at the base, which has been struck by mortar fire on at least one previous occasion since December.

Here’s a little perspective on just how quickly the world is spinning out of order.

Five years ago this month (maybe even this week), I was at al-Asad air base with four other comics doing a show. The place was still a war zone but the Americans and Iraqis were very much in charge. The show was packed, the troops were ready to go home and leave things in what seemed to be capable hands. Heck, the other comics and I hit the base store for souvenirs before we choppered out of there.

Now ISIS is trying to overrun some Americans there.

One can debate all that went wrong in Iraq in the last five years, but there has been one constant in this equation that entire time: the Americans have had the same commander in chief since 2010.

Top Oregon Democrats and the state treasurer on Thursday called on Governor John Kitzhaber to resign in response to conflict-of-interest allegations involving his fiancee, and Oregon’s secretary of state said she is ready to step into the job.

Kitzhaber, a Democrat, faces mounting pressure to resign amid a criminal corruption probe launched last week by the state attorney general over a possible conflict of interest between the role of his fiancee as an unpaid adviser and her consulting contracts.

“Oregon deserves a governor who is fully focused on the duties of state,” Treasurer Ted Wheeler said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve.”

House of Representatives Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, both Democrats, met with Kitzhaber on Thursday and urged him to resign. A Courtney spokesman said the governor, in response, was “upset” and “defiant.”

The Democrat Borg in Oregon just elected this clown to a fourth term so it’s no wonder he’s being kind of arrogant and defiant. It’s also not surprising that things got crony-riffic after a while. The longer a politician stays in one office, especially a powerful office, the opportunities for wrongdoing increase exponentially. Democrats run around practically unchecked in Oregon and probably have a feeling of invincibility after the first re-election because they know they’ve pretty much just gotten political tenure.

Wisconsin’s Republican governor, widely expected to launch a bid for President, has opened an office one state over in the early-voting state of Iowa, the Des Moines Register reported Tuesday.

Walker’s political action committee, Our American Revival, has rented office space in Urbandale, Iowa, just west of the capital city of Des Moines.

The move makes Walker, who many say is a front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, the first likely candidate to put roots down in Iowa, which hosts the first-in-the-nation caucuses next February.

Walker is certainly moving swiftly and in a rather orderly fashion. While he may never have run for president before, he has been through three grueling campaigns in four years and has people he trusts in place. Yes, it is still early, but if you are looking for the guy who much of the base likes and can win over the Harumph wing of the GOP that prefers its candidates to have been around for decades, Walker is probably the best shot at this point.

If you are looking for an ideal candidate, now might be a good time to grow up.

U.S. President Barack Obama will propose to Congress on Wednesday a new three-year authorization for the use of force against Islamic State with limits on U.S. combat troops’ involvement, lawmakers and congressional aides said.

Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacking the jihadists in Iraq. But he has faced criticism for failing to seek the backing of Congress, where some accuse him of breaching his constitutional authority.

Facing pressure to let lawmakers weigh in on an issue as important as the deployment of troops and chastened by elections that handed power in Congress to Republicans, he said in November he would request formal authorization for the use of military force (AUMF).

An outline of that request, expected to be handed to Congress on Wednesday, could stir debate over how U.S. troops should be deployed and the extent of U.S. engagement in Iraq and Syria.

The proposal would allow the use of special forces and advisors for defensive purposes but bar “enduring offensive ground forces,” lawmakers and aides said. It would not, however, set geographic limits for the campaign against the group.

This administration is beginning to make me understand why warning labels are put on hot coffee and toys with small parts that might cause choking. One also wonders whether anyone on Team Lightbringer has ever read a history book.

This “plan” not only avoids committing to the only thing that will work, it once again lets ISIS know exactly how long it has to hang on until the next fanfare-laden exit of the troops keeping them in check. In a more sane world, it would be nice to think that there was some deep thinking behind the three year number but with this group it’s more than likely they merely plucked it out of the air because it sounded good.

Everyone’s fingers should be crossed and hoping that the American people elect an adult in 2016.